Method of making coil containers



F. R'. SCHAEFER METHOD OF MAKING con. CONTAINERS Original Filed Aug. 17,1945 Feb. 17, 1953 Feb. 17, 1953 F. R. SCHAEFER 2,628,463

METHOD OF MAKING con. CONTAINERS Original Filed Aug. 17, 1945 2SHEETSSHEET 2 FEEDER/CK K. SCH/451 252 I I i y Arrive/V545 Patented Feb.17, 1953 METHOD OF MAKING COIL CONTAINERS Frederick R. Schaefer,Youngstown, Ohio, as-

signor to Republic Steel Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation ofNew Jersey Original application August 17, 1945, Serial No.

1952, Serial No. 280,317

4 Claims.

The present invention relates generally to the container art, and moreparticularly, to a new method of making new containers.

There are certain uses for containers which heretofore could not besatisfied by conventional containers or containers made by conventionalmethods. One such use is the packaging of elongated articles such aswire, cable and the like. These articles have been packed for shipmentheretofore by being coiled or tied and sometimes wrapped in fabric. Atother times they have been wound on reels and handled with or without acovering, commonly known as lagging, spanning the space between the reeland thereby protecting the article. There are numerous disadvantages toboth of these handling methods. The coils which were shipped with orwithout fabric covering were liable to injury during handling and werehazards to people who handled them. The reels which were used were itemsof considerable expense whether or not made substantial enough forrepeated use and required stands on which they could be rotated duringremoval of the articles therefrom.

It has also been proposed to package such elongated articles in acontainer having an opening in either or both of its ends so that thearticle could be withdrawn from the container through such an openingwithout rotating the container. While such containers would not possessthe disadvantages of prior packaging methods, and would possess newadvantages, no conventional or commercially used container was suitablefor this use, so far as we know, and no method of making such containerwas known.

The present invention provides new containers which are suitable forvarious uses, including the packaging of coiled, elongated articleswhich are to be withdrawn through the end of the container, and providesa new method of manufacturing containers, particularly these new ones.

The present invention will be better understood by those skilled in theart from the following description and the accompanying drawings inwhich:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary end view of a con--, tainer embodying thepresent invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary, central, sectional view, partly in elevation,taken on line 22 of Fig. 1 and Figs. 3, 4, and 6 are fragmentary,central, sectional views showing progressive steps in the manufacture ofthe container of Figs. 1 and 2.

The container shown in Figs. 1 and 2 com Divided and this applicationApril 3,

prises a cylindrical shell or body I and end members or ends 2 and 3 inthe form of rings which are double-seam connected to body I, have opencenters and are provided with diskshaped covers 4 to fit into and closethe central openings in the rings 2 and 3. If desired, covers 4 may befitted with tabs 5 on their outer surfaces to serve as pries or grips bywhich the covers 4 may be removed and also, if desired, the covers 4 maybe provided with tabs 6 on their inner surfaces to act as securing meansfor the ends of coiled articles within the container. Covers 4 may beprovided with flanges 'I on their outer peripheries to engagefrictionally with parallel flanges 8 about the central openings in rings2 and 3. Frictional engagement of flanges I and 8 serves to secure thecovers 4 in rings 3.

If and when desired, the body I may be provided with lifting 'andcarrying handles. As shown, these handles consist of rings 9 which areattached to body I by clips I!) and rivets II. The body I may bedepressed so that the rings 9 may lie flush with or within the outersurface of the body when not in use.

Body I and container ends 2 and 3 are shown in Fig. 1 in assembledposition preliminary to being connected together. The end 2 has a flatbody portion I5 and a circumferential, axially extending flange I6. Atthe junction of body portion I5 and flange It the end 2 may be deformedto provide an annular recess I! for a purpose presently to appear.However, the formation of such recess is not essential.

End 3 has a flat body portion [8, a circumferential flange I9 extendingaxially on the outer side thereof and an abutment flange 2B projectingoutwardly beyond flange I9. End 2 and flange I6 are smaller in diameter,respectively, than end 3 and'its flange I9.

Container body I is an open-ended cylinder. Near one end it has anoutwardly extending flange 25 to abut against abutment flange 20 of end3 and an annular portion 26 to seat on axial flange I9 of end 3. Itsopposite end portion has an outwardly extending flange 21 and an axialportion 28 to seat on flange I6 of end 2. The end portionsof the body orshell 5 adjacent to its flanges have annular surfaces of such'diametersas to seat on the larger and smaller diameter flanges l9 and I6 of ends3 and 2, respectively.

In its completed form, the container of Figs. 1 and 2 has an outerdouble-seam connection 29 between the larger end 3 and body I, and

2 in such a manner as to prevent movement.

of end 2 toward end 3.

The inside diameter of double-seam 29 is slightly greater than theoutside diameter of double-seam 30 and thus these containers may bestacked with the larger end ofone container seating on and surroundingthe smaller endof a container therebelow. The large end 3 of eachcontainer may be ribbed as is ,indicatedat 3I in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 foradded stiffness'when the conf tainers are stacked. Preferably, flanges Iand 8 are of such length measured axially of the containers that theflanges I of two adjacentcovers on stacked containers will engage eachother as shown in 2 for added support to thdOOXlm tainers and theircontents.

It will thus be seen that the present invention provides a container inwhich a cylindrical body is outer double-seam connected to both ends ofthe container and that the body is of such dimensions as to permit it tobe telescoped over the ends preliminary to formation of the doubleseams, and that both ends are prevented from moving toward each otherduring the double seaming operation. I

The method of the present invention is depicted in Figs. 3 to 6,inclusive. Ends 2 and 3',are first formed into shapes substantially asshown in Fig. 3. Then they may be mounted on a common axis with theirbody portions in p rallelism and a predetermined axial distance apartand with flanges I6 and I9 extending away from each other. A mandrel 35.which is preferably collapsible, may be used as amount for the ends 2and 3 and rings 36 suitably attached to mandrel 35 and vprevided withrecesses 31 to receive the flanges 8 of ends 2 and 3 which bear againstthe outer surfaces of these ends and prevent them from moving fartherapart. An elongated article may then be wound about mandrel :35 andbetween ends 2 and 3, but the outer turns of this article should notextend out flush with the outer surface of flange I6. Upon thecompletion .of such winding-body I may be slid axially over end 2 andonto end 3 where it rests on flange J9 and abuts against abutment flangeof end 3,

and its other end rests on axial flange Iii of to recess I? of end 2.Roll H which has peripheral teeth Ma, and shallow notches "Mbtherebetween is then brought into engagement with body i opposite theannular recess inchuck .40 and deforms body I duringrelative rotation ofbody 5 and roll 5!, thereby producing a plurality of indentations inbody I which projectinwardly and engage the inner axial side of end 2 inthe recessi? of body I, in the event that such a recess was previouslyformed therein, and similarly deforming both body I and end 2 into theannular recess of chuck it in the event that end '2 was not previouslyprovided with recess i1. This deformation of body I' against the inner 4surface of end 2 serves to prevent axial movement of end 2 toward and 3during the subsequent steps of the double-seaming operation. The roll 4|may have a, circumferentially continuous unnotched periphery when theshell I is composed of material which will not flow circumferentiallyand thereby increase in circumferential length while being provided withan annular projection.

-When the shell is composed of low carbon steel,

however, the toothed roll is preferred for it does not increase-thecircumferential length of the shell while indenting it. If desired, theuse of roll AI .may bedis'pensed with and in lieu thereof ,a crimpingtool may be used to form circumferentially spaced indentations in body Iwhich .will engage-the inner axial surface of end 2 to prevent axialmovement of that end toward end 3 during the subsequent double-seamingoperations.

When body I has been deformed so as to prevent such axial movement ofend 2, the portion of flange I6 which projects axially beyond flanges 27of body I may be deformed into parallelism with flange 2.1. As shown inFig. 5, this deforming operation may be carried out by bringing asupporting roll 42 against one side of flange 2'! and bringing a flangeroll 63 against the inner side offlangelfi and moving it outwardradially and thereby working flange H5 into parallelism with and againstflange 27. If desired, roll i3 may bedispensed with and a die may bepressed against flange It to deform it against flange 2'3.

Then flanges I3 and 21 may be double-seamed in the conventional manner,as by employing grooved roll 44 which wraps the end of flange I6 aroundflange 27 so that it engages the opposite side of flange 2'! and crimpsthese flanges together in folded form to constitute the double seam 3t.

Abutment flange 20 of ,end 3 may be similarly wrapped-around flange 25of body I and the two flanges crimped together in a double seam bypositioning a chuck similar to chuck it against the outside of end 2 andemploying a doubleseaming roll such as 44 in the manner just described.

It will be understood that in the operations depicted in Figs. 5 and 6the rolls E2, 43 and id on the one hand, and the container on the otherhand, are rotated relatively around the axis of thecontainer during theoperations of these two figures.

After double seams 29 and 33have been completed, chucksdfland backing upplates 36 may be removed .and, after removal of mandrel 35, covers 6 maybefltted into the central openings of ends} and If and when an end of acoiled articlezin a container isto be secured to a cover 4, the end isplaced under spring clip 6 just before the cover is pressed into placein th container.

'material capable of being worked by flanging,

deforming, crimping and double-seaming operations, as is particularlythe case with sheet metals such as sheet steel. It will also be notedthat the steps and'combination of steps constituting the present methodare new. V

This application is a division of my copending appslication Serial No.610,906, filed August 1'7, 194

Having thus described the present invention so that others skilled inthe art may be able to understand and practice the same, I state thatwhat I desire to secure by Letters Patent is defined in what is claimed.

What is claimed is:

l. The method of making a loaded container which comprises the steps offorming two flat container end members with axially extendingcircumferential flanges at their outer peripheries, the first of saidmembers having a flange extending radially outward from the free end ofits axially extending flange to constitute a stop flange, disposing saidend members in axially spaced position with their axial flangesextending away from each other, coiling an elongated article about theaxis of the container in the space between said end members, forming anopen ended cylindrical shell having axially extending circumferentialend portions to seat on said axial flanges of the end members andflanges extending radially outward from the free ends of said endportions, assembling said shell with said end members and coiled articleby sliding the shell endwise thereover until one end flange of the shellabuts against said stop flange of the first said end member and the endportions seat on the axial flanges of said end members, deforming theshell into engagement with the inner side of the other said end memberthereby fixing said member against axial movement toward the first saidend member, outer double seaming together the radial flange 0f the shelladjacent to said deformation and t e axial flan of t said other endmember, and outer double seaming together said stop flange and theadjacent radial flange of the shell.

2. The combination of steps set forth in claim 1 in which the axialflange of the first said end member has a larger diameter than that ofthe said other end member and the end portions of the said shell havediameters corresponding to those of said axial flanges.

3. The combination of steps set forth in claim 1 in which the said shellis deformed by being indented inwardly at a plurality ofcircumferentially spaced places.

4. The combination of steps set forth in claim 1 in which the axialflange of the said first end member has a larger diameter than that ofthe said other end, the end portions of said shell have diameterscorresponding to those of the axial flanges of the end members, and theshell is deformed inwardly at the inner side of the end member havingthe axial flange of smaller diameter.

FREDERICK R. SCHAEFER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,689,018 Froidevaux Oct. 23,1928 1,849,330 Moore Mar. 15, 1932 1,951,567 Spear Mar. 20, 19342,352,645 Liebmann July 4, 1944

